I’ve had trouble accurately describing what Google Wave is exactly. At its highest level, Google Wave is the next revolution in communication. Period. And businesses would be foolish to be ignorant and not harness what will certainly be the most powerful communication tool since e-mail.
I know you’re saying to yourself, “yeah dude, just like every new Web technology that pops up … I’m sure they’ll be something new next week about which people will say the same.” This is the real deal though–at least if Google delivers on everything they promised in their demo. If any of their other projects, i.e. Gmail, are any indication, they will not let this fail. Since I doubt my ability to convey just how amazing this could be, I strongly encourage you to watch the demo below to understand its potential. (Lifehacker breaks it down nicely if you’re not inclined to watching an hour and a half video.)
In their own words, Google has described it as “e-mail, if it were invented today,” but it’s much more than that. It is a communication HUB. Think of any form of digital communication: e-mail, IM, Twitter, social networks, blogs, wikis, etc. Google Wave either improves on these or easily integrates with them so you have a central source for all your communication needs.
To start with the most familiar example, a singular “wave” acts much like a threaded e-mail. However, all replies to the wave can be seen in real time, similar to IM style, and can be integrated in-line with the related text within the email. All communication can take place in real time. We’ve seen the power of real time with Twitter; now Google Wave has captured this. An application programming interface (API) allows for easy integration with Twitter, social networks, and blogs.
The Wave demo includes “Twave,” a Twitter client for Google Wave enabling you to access Twitter through your Google Wave account. It also includes an example of a powerful API that integrates blog commenting: you can comment on your favorite blog and it will appear in your Google Wave account. Any replies to your comment can be seen on your account and anything you post through Google Wave will appear on the blog.
Wave will become the premier online collaboration tool. Communication is instant. Editing of a document can be done by multiple people at the same time and everyone can see what the others are doing. More importantly, its play-back feature allows you to see what has occurred during a “wave.” For example, if you are invited to a wave later or if you miss anything, you can see all the previous events in that wave and the order in which they happened by pressing the play button. It also offers inter-business collaboration. Not only can members of a business collaborate with other members of their company, but they can also easily collaborate with members of another business by simply adding them to the wave.
However, its most important feature and the reason why it will revolutionize how we communicate is the fact that it is open source. If you’re a Firefox user, you know the benefits of open source. This means anyone can develop for it, essentially making it a platform that can be built upon with innovative extensions. One of the more interesting ones demoed was the auto translate bot, which translates English to French on the fly. It allows for a conversation to take place in two different languages seamlessly, in real time, without any translation necessary by the participants.
Andy Ihnatko of the Chicago Sun Times gives a great example of how it could dramatically ease the painstaking process of producing his column. By having himself, his editor, and a bot, which automatically sends his column to be published on the web, on a wave, his column can be altered much more quickly and collaboratively.
And just think, all of this available through any browser, meaning it will essentially be available to you anywhere with the advancement of smartphones. This will be huge.
